orchestra of bubbles

nom nom nom. nom. cooking is one of my passions – slow braises, high heat stir fries, complicated savory roasts, rich soups from scratch, uneccessarily complicated salads … you name it. baking, however, has never really appealed to me. all the precise measuring, weighing, following directions (who DOES that?), seems more like math. i love cooking for its spontaneity, flexibility, its ability to bend obligingly to my whims and random digressions. i never was good at following at a regimen. i rarely follow recipes verbatim but prefer to use them as a starting point for something that feels more like ‘mine.’ [translation = whatever happens to already be in my fridge or looks good in the market.] this cake, however, may have changed my culinary destiny. pillowy, lighter than air buttermilk cake is topped with farmers market strawberries and store-bought blueberries, creating a sugar-spun confection that is just as good for breakfast with strong coffee as it is after a night summer supper. decadent and supple and one of the best starts to summer that i can think of.

p.s. you may notice a large, spherical object in the larger cake. what is that you say? a grape tomato. that’s right. a tomato. it snuck into the batter, i think when i was doing a quick herb de provence vegetable roast on the rack above. i guess i still have more bakery learning to do. :sighs: